Bitcoin punched through $79,000 on Monday, hitting an intraday high near $79,406 before resistance stalled the advance. The pullback follows a seven-day surge of more than 24%, driven partly by heavy ETF inflows, and the asset now trades in a consolidation band between roughly $77,000 and $79,000.
Bitcoin touched an intraday high of roughly $79,406 on Bitstamp Monday before sellers pushed the price back down. The rejection extended a pattern that has held since last week's rally: buyers keep testing the $80,000 psychological line, and sellers keep turning them back.
Bitcoin Consolidates Below Key Resistance
On the daily chart, BTC broke above a long-standing descending trendline and the $65,900-$67,100 resistance zone, then rallied through the $72,000-$74,400 supply area to approach $80,000. The price now sits between that reclaimed zone and the next major resistance area around $80,700-$82,700.
The four-hour chart shows momentum cooling further after the near-vertical climb from around $64,000, with BTC forming a short-term descending channel in the $75,000-$79,000 region. A break above the channel's upper boundary would strengthen the case for another push toward $80,700-$82,700, while a break below could send the price back toward the $72,000-$74,400 support zone. The structure points to continued consolidation. BTC could range between roughly $74,000 and $81,000 in the near term.
ETF Demand and Leverage Fueled the Run
Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in nearly $2 billion last week, their best week since October 2025, as the price moved from $64,000 to $77,000. Leverage amplified the move on the way up: roughly $3 billion was liquidated from derivatives markets during the rally. Today alone, $337.28 million was wiped out across crypto derivatives, including $66.43 million in BTC short positions.
Fed Decision Looms Over Next Move
Traders are now watching the Jackson Hole symposium and the Federal Reserve's September rate decision as the next catalysts for direction. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz add another source of volatility. Bitcoin's daily RSI remains in deeply overbought territory between 79 and 82, while the MACD stays bullish, leaving the $80,700-$82,700 zone as the level bulls need to clear to confirm the rally's continuation.
Sources: CryptoPotato, Bitcoin.com
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
